A Government of National Unity - drastic times call for drastic measures

The EU has offered nothing but platitudes to Greeks as their economy founders. With the UK economy far from stable, is the answer to bypass party politics and adopt a Government of National Unity?

For the past two years the world press has regaled us with the never ending story of the Global Recession. Every twist and turn has been written about, investigated, reviewed and analysed until we are as wise as the people telling us or so confused it’s just like piling pancakes one on top of the other.

In those 24 short months we had the Armageddon of the capitalist world, massive crimes and deceits, collapse after collapse of some of the financial world’s iconic brands. We recently came to the point where we thought we could see the light and there was hope of an end to it all but this week we have seen the EU leaders running about like headless chickens trying to save Greece from bankruptcy and the Euro from collapse.

With Greece in crisis there is a queue of fretful EU states waiting to see the implications for their own economies – Portugal, Spain and possibly Italy.

Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, told us that there was still uncertainty and frailty as to the UK economy and we might even go back into recession. If we don’t it is still going to be years before our economy is sound again.

With this as a backdrop our political leaders from all parties still spew out the same old sound bites and polices so beloved by each party. Dogma prevails and looks like continuing up to and well past the General Election. Vanities and egos are the order of the day – the party view is what is offered to us as a solution to our problems and we are proffered the choice of Brown, Cameron or Clegg. What a sorrowful bunch they are. This is not the way!

Those of us old enough to have been around during and just after the Second World War will remember that we had a Government of National Unity. This was the way we got through the war; prioritized what was best for the country and its citizens and started the long and slow process of rebuilding the country into a better and fairer place.

Well from where I sit we are very much in a place similar to then. We are fighting to protect our way of life in the face of catastrophic financial collapse. We have spent money we didn’t have and had to borrow more to stay afloat! Our economy is rock bottom and the next wave of redundancies is starting in the public sector – more will follow.

There is still a lot of rubbish to clear out of the Banks and until it is done they are going to be in no place to re-energise business borrowing. This may not be a war but it may well have the long term effect of one. Ooops – I forgot about Afghanistan!

What we need now is a government that has a strong experienced leader and a Cabinet drawn all the parties. Choose the best man or woman for each of the Cabinet posts. Let party politics be put to one side and everybody work to a common goal - to put the Great back into Great Britain and make this a country a prosperous and fair place for our children and grandchildren to live in.

There will be sacrifices that will have to be made but nobody will complain if we are all sharing in them. It worked in the 1940s and 50s and there is no reason why it shouldn’t work again. Let’s bury the political parties for a decade and get on with repairing the ‘war damage’!